Stepping into the Future
by shortyes
Summary: Anbu use mask to hide their face yet who's to say that each person has a mask of their own that they wear, letting no one see the true self.


Walking home, a lone genin pondered about how his life has turned out so far. Every step of everyday, he strived to make friends, to be accepted by the village that gave birth to him but scorned him. Yet each day it seems that he was back to square one and having to try even harder to get people to like him.

Sighing from disappointment, Naruto looked up at the building that he called home. Giving a slight twist to the doorknob and entering his house, he practically fell onto the couch. Naruto had never bothered to lock the front door. Konoha, the Hidden Leaf Village, was practically crime free. Every Hidden Village was crime free, considering the fact that no one was stupid enough to steal from someone that could very well track down the perpetrator and kill him.

I'm so tired, Naruto thought. Today's training session had been torture as Kakashi-sensei made them run around the entire village with weights on. "If it works for Lee, it should work for you guys" Kakashi-sensei had explained.

From where he was resting on the couch, Naruto could see the stars. Naruto thought about his life and a soft sigh escaped his lips. At night all alone, he felt that he could drop the hyper active attitude and just be himself. There was no one to impress and he could not help the way he acted around his friends. It was not his fault how excited he was when people talk to him as a friend or at least another person rather than the angry and loathing attitude the rest of the villagers use. It was not his fault he had, sealed within his belly the demon that almost wiped out the entire village. Sensing his thoughts spiraling downwards, he tapped the side of his head lightly with his knuckles. "Think happy thoughts, Naruto" he whispered to himself. Returning his attention back to his previous line of musing he smiled a little at the thought that he finally had friends.

Before he made genin, he was alone, with only the night stars as his companions. Yet that all changed since that fateful night when he realized that there were people that cared for him and not scorn and loath him like the majority of the villagers. First there was Iruka-sensei who first acknowledged him then Team Seven, his team, lead by Kakashi-sensei, and fellow members Sakura and Sasuke. He had a few more friends from some of the various other teams.

Bringing his hands up to meet the night sky, Naruto sighed. The amount of friends his age he could count with both his hands. Bringing one hand back down onto the couch, leaving one hand still covering the stars, I can count the number of adults that are kind to me on one hand.

Why am I so alone? Naruto thought. There was not a single night that he did not ponder this issue. He was the sole member of the Uzumaki Clan and yet he lived by himself. Normally when a child is left parentless due to a mission, that child would be taken care of by one of the various other members of the clan. If the rare case that the entire clan heads and all of its adults were wiped out, the children were adopted into a different clan, one that was close to the now deceased clan.

There were only a few cases where a kid was left to fend for himself and those were children from powerful clans. Since the entire inheritance was left to the kid, he literally had the funds to live by himself but was usually appointed a guardian until he reached thirteen or attained genin level, whichever came first. Not only that but other clans would normally go out of their way to help the kid grow and maybe marry one of their own to the lone child to help him or her rebuild their clan since these kids normally were from families with advance bloodlines.

Yet in the case of the Uzumaki clan, Naruto was left in the dark. He had his own house, funds to stock it with food and electricity and whatever else he needs. He also had a guardian but he has yet to lay eyes on him or her. His only means of communication were messages his guardian left and those were becoming scarcer as he had made genin.

From the size of the house, he knew his clan was powerful. Yet questions remained. What happened to them? Did he have an advance bloodline? But sometimes he just wanted to know why he was so hated. Of the three questions that had lingered for so long, he could finally answer the last.

Again the moment that highlighted his acceptance from a few, also help lift a veil that had surrounded his thirteen years of life. He found out he was the container for the nine-tailed demon, Kyuubi, the very one that had destroyed so many clans and left many kids and newborn like himself without someone to call mom or dad. Yet it still did not explain the absence of his family tree. There was no information anywhere about his father and mother.

Closing his eyes, Naruto slowly fell into a deep slumber. The same questions still plagued his mind. At least within his dreams, he could live another life, one where he was part of a family.

* * *

Gazing into the night sky, the ninja known as the copy-cat, stretched, trying to relieve some of the aches from sitting in the chair for so long. Had he known becoming a jounin and taking on three genin students involved so much paperwork, he would never had agreed, even if the pay was higher. Opening on the notebooks in front of him he started to flip though the pages.

In each of the notebooks, Kakashi made notes about each of his students. It was basically a journal of their progress under his tutorage. These three booklets was one of the reasons he was late most of the time, having spent countless hours updating and reviewing left him exhausted and thus the long hours in bed. Though the small book next to him was another reason, Ah the joy of Paradise volume III, Kakashi thought to himself.

Taking a moment to relax, he stared into the night sky. It was nights like these that he wish he could be just as lazy as the Nara clan, having nothing to worry about but look at the clouds and stars all day.

"So little time to read but more money," Kakashi muttered to himself. "More time to read but less money."

Stroking his hair in a little frustration, "Life is so cruel!"

Sighing in defeat for the moment, he returned his attention back to the task at hand, not before looking at the novel to his left. "Soon my precious," he said, knowing that he would have plenty of time why his three students trained tomorrow.

Looking down at the booklets on his desk, each booklet contained each of his student's physical descriptions, attributes and skills: taijutsu to genjutsu and ninjutsu. Each time, any of the students would improve, Kakashi made it a point to update the bar graph and enter the date that he felt that particular student had achieved that level. This helped him determine their progress when plotted on a graph with time as the constant factor. These books would not only help him come up with better teaching methods for each one but also help the village either catch or kill any of them if they happen to go rouge in the future. Dismissing that line of thought for the time being, he smiled when he was looking over Sakura and Sasuke's progress. They were coming along nicely. Sakura's progress with genjutsu was astounding. She had almost perfect chakra control, in some ways, not having as much of a chakra reserve as her teammates helped. It was his belief that size did not matter as much as timing and execution. Having timing, execution and a huge reserve never hurt either. While Sasuke's chakra control was not nearly as good as Sakura, he made it up in ninjutsu and taijutsu. That was to be expected from the last of the Uchiha Clan.

The only problem was his third student. Naruto's was lagging behind in all three categories. The only area that he was somewhat on par with his teammates was in the area of taijutsu. The only thing that Naruto had going for him was his stubbornness to admit defeat, stamina and large chakra pool. It was one of the reasons that he had Naruto run around the village with weights. If it works for Guy's student who was horrible with ninjutsu and genjutsu it should work for Naruto as well.

"There is not much time left. The Chuunin exam was coming up soon," Kakashi, muttered. In that amount of time, he would try to teach Naruto and Sakura as much as possible then he would have to start looking for someone else to teach the two since within the entire village, he was the only one that could teach Sasuke how to properly use his advance bloodline, the Sharingan.

* * *

So much warmth, Naruto thought lazily as he slept. This was one of his favorite dreams that would constantly play out in his mind.

Opening his eyes, Naruto would be met with a smiling face of a kindly woman.

"Good morning, sleepyhead. Breakfast is on the table. You better hurry or else you will be late meeting up with Sasuke, Sakura and Kakashi-sensei."

"Thanks, mom," Naruto heard himself say to the strange lady.

Each time he had this dream, he would memorized every facial feature of his dream mom so that he would not forget when he woke up. Sometimes the dream was the only thing he had to make him smile when he was young. There was someone that cared for him; it didn't matter if she only appeared in his dreams.

She had long white hair tied in a ponytail. Her eyes were blue that would twinkle when she smiled. Around her neck was a badge that marked her as an Anbu. She wore a loose fitting kimono, one that made movement easy.

Getting up, Naruto rushed past his mom and into the breakfast area. Each time he got there, his father was already heading out. Unlike his mother, his father had long blond hair that was slightly spiky. Yet he never saw his father's face, always his back.

"Hurry up Naruto or you'll be late liked usual." His father would tell him each time.

Nodding his head, Naruto would engulf his food and race out. On his way he would look up at the three faces curved into the mountain, the three most important people of a Hidden Village, the Kages, past and present. Here in Konoha, the Hokages' faces were curved into a stone foundation, forever symbolizing to the villagers that there was someone looking out for them, from the very first to the third Hokages.

"Later mom, I'm off" Naruto shouted.

"Good luck son," he would always hear before the dream faded.

The last thing he always remembered was his dream self stating that he would some day surpass his father and become the greatest of shinobis, the Fifth Hokage. Yet in his dream state he never wondered how there had to be a Yondaime for there to be a Godaime.

Opening his eyes, Naruto could see the first sign of the new day. Beams of light broke through the various buildings to strike him in the eyes. Squinting, Naruto yarned and got up, ready for the new day. Someday I will become the Hokage of this village and have people acknowledge me, Naruto swore to himself.

Getting up quickly, Naruto went to take a shower and get ready to meet his teammates. He knew that their instructor would not be on time and most likely come a few hours late but that did not mean he had to, especially if getting there on time meant he had more time to talk to Sasuke and Sakura. Adjusting the symbol of the Leaf just right on his forehead, he started out the door in preparation for a new day.

* * *

Staring at the blank wall for the last hour, one of the last surviving members of the prestigious Uchiha Clan could not sleep. When he slept, he dreamt. When he dreamt, he would eventually have nightmares. With the nightmares came the lack of sleep. Thus this recurring cycle kept one Uchiha Sasuke from getting a good night sleep. This was one of the main causes for his short temper and attitude towards the world.

One of the few remedies was either medication or meditation. It would be a cold day in hell when he would admit that he needed medication to fall asleep. He could hear the gossips now.

"Did you hear? Uchiha needs medication to go to sleep."

"I hear Uchiha needs to keep taking pills to stay sane."

"I would not blame the boy if he some day decides to kill himself."

"Taking medication at his young age? Maybe he is not fit to be a ninja?"

"First medication, then drinking and before you know it, the last Uchiha would be nothing more than a common bum."

Nope, no way am I going to depend on drugs, Sasuke swore to himself. With his mind made up for the hundredth time, he went back to meditation and for the hundredth time, Sasuke started to think that staring at the white wall was just as bad.

Maybe blue would be a better color? he thought. For months, every night that he sat staring at the white wall, an urge to paint it a different color would grow. First he thought about black but that was depressing. Red was out of the question since he reminded him of that fateful day when he became one of only two Uchiha surviving. Orange was another color he would not consider since his home was the only place he could have some peace and quiet away from the dobe of Team Seven.

I have to admit though; shouting at Naruto keeps my mind away from the nightmares. Maybe he is good for something else. I bet not even death can stand all that shouting of his long, Sasuke laughed to himself.

"If I'm desperate enough, maybe orange," he muttered, "or perhaps pink."

Think about that later as he fell asleep. The next morning he smiled since he could recall any nightmares.

* * *

"Oh! Sasuke," Sakura muttered in her sleep.

"Hmmmmmm!"

To be continued.


End file.
